Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

The Golden Summers of the 1930s, Part IX
by H. Bishop Holliman 2011

The Hurricane Approaches...

"Our place at Panama City was on the same street, a few cabins up from where all the others were staying.  The highway ran between our place and the beach, a very convenient location.  One day all of us were deep-sea fishing and some of us got sick.  I don't remember catching many fish, but what I do remember is the hurricane that came up a few days later.  It was a defining moment of our 1936 trip to Florida and an event we would remember and talk about the rest of our lives.

Young Bishop Holliman on vacation in Florida, wearing a white tie?

Before the hurricane came ashore, Bishop and other families members fished along the Panama City inlets.  

We read in the paper that a strong storm was approaching the Gulf Coast that summer of 1936, but we did not pay much attention to the warning.  Remember, we did not have ready access to a radio so the paper was all we had to rely on.  The morning of the storm dawned cloudy and very windy.  We were not able to stay on the beach due to the stinging sand of Panama City that was whipped up by the raging wind.  It went on like that all day, so we sat and waited for nightfall, hoping things would be better tomorrow.

The Holliman Clan and Company remained in their cabin a few doors closer to the beach and across the street from us  About 8 o'clock that night we thought we felt the house shake, so Robert Daly, Sr. herded us out to this car, and we sat, thinking the wind would let up soon.  I don't know why we felt the car would be a safer place than the house.  But about 9 o'clock we noticed a big stir in the house down the street and we wondered what was going on.  We soon found out."


Next the escape from the beach!